Stop assault on press freedom

While the international media celebrated the release of Australian Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste after 401 days of detention in Egypt, his two colleagues, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, are still behind bars awaiting retrial.

Closer home, the safety and freedom of Kenya's journalists has never been under greater threat. Over the recent past, cases of journalists receiving threats for publishing reports touching on the ills bedevilling the Kenyan society have reportedly been on the rise.

Some of the threats are believed to originate from Kenya's internal security apparatus, politicians, people in high public authority and politically-connected business people, anonymous callers and the so-called Kenya Digital Cops who use social networking sites.

According to the Nairobi-based National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (NCHRD-K), the Kenya Digital Cops have resorted to social media to malign and threaten celebrated investigative journalists, at times calling for their killing.

Early this January, Chrispinus Wekesa, a journalist with a local daily, was warned by anonymous callers over his continued publication of stories torching on the Lang'ata Primary School land grab saga.

In May 2014, The Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA) condemned threats to Mwingi-based correspondent Lydia Ngoolo, over a story touching on terrorist threats in Kenya.

The Kenya Correspondents Association said the journalist had to go into hiding after some of the local police officers, administration officials and a politician became hostile to her.

Mohammed Ali and John Allan Namu of the investigative feature Jicho Pevu have received their fair share of threats. In March 2013, Wesonga Bernard Ochieng, a journalist who had made a name for himself documenting and exposing organised and transnational crimes in Mombasa, died in mysterious circumstances.

These are not isolated cases. Indeed, the threats and the recent arrest of journalists and mysterious deaths represent a grave threat to press freedom and the safety of security of all the journalists in Kenya.

Additionally, the ongoing digital migration row between the Communications Authority, the Information ministry on one hand and NTV, QTV, Citizen TV and KTN operating as African Digital Network also amounts to curtailing of press freedom.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental element of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and is widely seen as underpinning other democratic freedoms such as the right to form political parties, the right to share political ideas, the right to scrutinise the actions of public officials, and so on. In this sense, freedom of expression also supports good governance and democratic accountability. Indeed, one of the measures of a free and democratic society is the freedom of its media and its journalists.

According to UNESCO's media development indicators, members of society at large do not feel safe to speak out when they see a journalist attacked, and especially when there is impunity for the attackers.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navy Pillay, in her speech to the 27th session of the Human Rights Council (July 2014), remarked that "sound, bold and independent journalism is vital in any democratic society.

It drives the right to hold and express opinions and the right to seek, impart and receive information and ideas; it ensures transparency and accountability in the conduct of public affairs and other matters of public interest..." According to Ms Pillay, safety of journalists is an essential ingredient for the development of a democratic society.

For this reason, journalists are considered to require special protections to enable them operate freely. It follows therefore that journalists need to be free and safe to provide the content that is carried on media platforms.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 Paragraph 2 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, list Press Freedom as a right. It's important to note, however, that this right cannot be effectively enjoyed in the absence of safety and security of journalists.

Journalism is steadily becoming a high-risk profession the world over. Previously regarded as ''The Fourth Estate'' the media and journalists are now the State's biggest threat. Journalists are facing multi-faceted threats from intimidation, witch hunt, denial of employment, confiscation of work tools, physical attacks and assault, kidnapping for ransom and outright killing.